Greenwood Commonwealth. April 2, 2024.

Editorial: Early Voting Is Put On Hold

A House committee chairman has killed an effort this year to allow any Mississippi voter to cast his or her ballot early at the circuit clerk’s office.

The chairman, Rep. Noah Sanford, R-Collins, said he wanted to give the proposal more study due to concerns some of the state’s circuit clerks have raised about the cost of it. According to Sanford, the circuit clerks said they feared that they might have to hire an additional clerk to administer the change.

Really?

The proposal calls for allowing early voting for 15 days before an election, a shorter time than is allowed in some of the 46 states that already have this option. We’re talking about 15 days, not 15 weeks.

If that really created more work than a circuit clerk’s existing staff could handle, any additional help would be necessary for only a few weeks out of every year. That should not break any county’s or circuit clerk’s bank account.

Besides, there are cost savings to the change, too, that could offset any of these supposed extra expenses. No-excuse early voting would eliminate in-person absentee voting and possibly reduce the demand for mail-in absentee ballots as well. That would save the circuit clerks some time and headache.

There are so many advantages to early in-person voting that it makes little sense for Mississippi to remain one of the holdouts.

Early voting would add a layer of convenience, which should increase voter participation. It would be secure, since the early voting would be done in the circuit clerk’s office and voter IDs would be checked, just like at a precinct on Election Day. And if it reduces the number of absentee ballots requested, that means there should be less potential for fraud, since absentee ballots are the main avenue that the cheaters use.

The issue of early voting is not going away. Nor does it need a lot more study. Mississippi already has the example of what 46 states are successfully doing. How much more information does it really need?

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Columbus Dispatch. March 27, 2024.

Editorial: When is the right time to have a tornado plan? Now.

This week, Consumer Affairs released its annual report on tornadoes using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which has been tracking tornadoes in the United States since 1950.

The report, which includes information about tornadoes that occurred in 2023, is timely. In Mississippi, tornadoes are most common between March and May, with another surge in November, but if you have lived in the state any length of time you know that every month can be tornado season. You need only go back four years, to February 2019, to the EF3 tornado that swept through Lowndes County and Columbus as evidence of that.

Relatively speaking, 2023 was not a particular busy tornado year in the state, with 44 tornadoes. That still ranked 14th in the number of tornadoes by state.

Looking at the historical numbers, 2023 was a bit of an outlier, the lowest number of tornadoes in the state in 16 years. Since 1950, NOAA has recorded 3,227 tornadoes in Mississippi, but the frequency of tornadoes shown in the data reflects how climate change is making our state more susceptible to them. During the 73-periods reflected in the data, there have been six years when the number of tornadoes in the state hit triple figures. All six of the triple-digit tornadoes have come in the past 18 years. In 2022, a record 182 tornadoes touched down in Mississippi.

The cost of these weather disasters, both in property loss and loss of life, is sobering — $2.77 billion in property loss and 528 deaths since 1950. The property-loss dollars don’t reflect inflation, so the losses are far greater in today’s dollars.

The report should not be surprising to long-term Mississippi residents, but it does serve to remind us that tornadoes are a fact of life here rather than an odd occurrence. As we see the effects of climate change there is good reason to expect the worst and prepare accordingly.

While we are powerless to prevent the property damage that tornadoes produce, we can do some simple things to improve our chances of survival. If possible, people should go to a storm shelter. If that’s not an option, people should go into an interior room away from windows and cover themselves with mattresses. Those who live in mobile homes should seek any other shelter within reach. If you are driving, leave your car and find shelter, such as a highway underpass. It’s important to remember that most injuries are caused by flying debris, so any shelter is better than none at all.

All those tips come into play as the tornado arrives, but there are other things you can do now that will be of value, especially in the aftermath of a tornado. Among them:

■ Establish a meet-up place for your family in the event family members are not together at the time of the storm.

■ Assemble a tornado kit with non perishable food, water, medicines, first-aid products, flashlights, batteries and even an extra cell phone battery.

■ Compile a list that includes insurance policy numbers, contact numbers (in the event you lose cell coverage), and prescription information for medicines.

■ Keep personal records — birth certificates, driver’s licenses, social security cards and other identification, insurance policies — in an air-tight container somewhere you can retrieve them quickly.

These precautions will make recovery go faster, smoother and less complicated than it would otherwise be.

As the data shows, tornadoes can happen almost anytime, so if you haven’t put together a tornado plan, the time to do that is now.

END